PERFUMES AND THEIR PREPARATION. 5 the case, for instance, with the patchouly odor which always adheres to Indian shawls. A shawl-maker of Lyons, who had succeeded in perfectly imitating Indian shawls with reference to design and colors, spent a fabulous sum to obtain possession of the plant used by the Indian weavers for perfuming; their wares. Despite the great outlay caused by the search for this plant, the man- ufacturer is said to have done a flourishing business with his "genuine" Indian shawls. In more recent times the wider range of commerce has resulted in the appearance of many new and valuable natural odorant materials and the scientific study of their extraction and preparation has made them available in more convenient form. The culture of the perfume bearing plants has not been neglected and the yield of perfume has been in many cases notably in- creased. On the other hand, chemistry has added many new notes to the odor scale and has made the production of cheaper but still desirable perfumes possible. The consequent extension in the use of perfumes has led to placing the industry on a higher and more scientific plane and is in a fair way to make it even more important than it is today. If empiricism is still the rule in the blending of odorous materials it is only because Science is still incapable of measur- ing" accurately such an imponderable, quantity as odor value. Yet it may be predicted that the time is not far off when a rational theory of odor values will be advanced on which can be founded experimental work which will result in placing the art of perfuming on a more scientific basis than it can claim today. At present France claims supremacy in the perfume field, aided as she is by a plentiful supply of native raw materials and by the natural artistic genius of her people. But the American perfumer yields place to none, and if our tariff policy allows him the unrestricted access to a quality of raw materials such as is enjoyed by his Gallic competitor he can easily hold his own. Even now the demand for imported perfumes is a matter of vogue and not of superior quality.